Four former undersecretaries for domestic finance at the US
Treasury wrote a
letter yesterday detailing why they think Wall Streeter
Antonio Weiss is the right man for that job.

The Obama administration has nominated Weiss, the head of
investment banking at Lazard, as undersecretary for domestic
finance, the number-three position at the Treasury.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is trying to block Weiss'
confirmation, suggesting that he is from Wall Street and
therefore won't look out for America's middle-class families. She
and others have also argued that Weiss' experience has not
prepared him for the role.

The former undersecretaries, who held the same job, dispute that.

"No candidate's background can be expected to align precisely
with every duty of the position," wrote Mary John Miller, Jeffrey
Goldstein, Robert Steel, and Randal Quarles.

Here's what Warren's press secretary told Business Insider in
response:

Senator Warren has been pointedly questioning the Wall
Street-centric culture that has existed at Treasury and
understands that various insiders find that threatening. She’s
encouraged that Antonio Weiss supporters are now acknowledging
that Dodd-Frank implementation is central to the role, and she
continues to believe his experience is not the right fit.

Implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial-reform law is
important to the Massachussetts Democrat, who is a member of the
Senate Subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer
Protection.

Warren tried to prevent Congress from passing a spending bill
that would loosen certain provisions in Dodd-Frank, allowing
banks to once again trade potentially risky derivatives.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Warren said
the new provisions “would let derivatives traders on Wall Street
gamble with taxpayer money and get bailed out by the government
when their risky bets threaten to blow up our financial system."

Warren has
repeatedly said that Weiss, who has a background in
international mergers and acquisitions and spent much of his
career overseas, does not have the qualifications to make
decisions on national debt, consumer policy, and Treasury
stability.

"His supporters say, 'Come on – he's a smart investment banker,
so of course he is qualified to
oversee all the complicated financial work done day in and day
out at the Treasury.' But his defenders haven't shown that his
actual experience prepares him for this job," Warren said in
a speech at
the Economic Policy Institute Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the White House is standing by its nominee,
stating on Tuesday, "This is somebody who has very good knowledge
of the way that the financial markets work, and that is
critically important."

Neither that statement nor the former undersecretaries'
letter addresses Warren's
concern with Lazard's history of overseeing unpopular mergers
widely seen as tax-inversion deals.